Girls online aged 10 are most sexually explicit, say experts
GIRLS aged 10 use the most sexually explicit language when they text – but boys are more abusive and aggressive.
Analysis of more than 65 million posts by 50,000 children shows a disturbing rise in X-rated messages.
The anonymous information was captured over the past three months by British software experts at SafeToNet, who found the transfer of sexually explicit pictures and messages – socalled sexting – happens mostly on Sundays and typically in the morning.
Much of the language is too graphic to reproduce but its common use highlights how little parents know about their child’s online world.
Richard Pursey, boss of SafeToNet, the British tech firm which has devised an app to help keep children safe online, said: “This data tells me that as parents we are missing the point. Where have the children learned this language from?
Risks
“But more to the point what on earth are they doing with a phone in their hand when it means they have access to whatever they want, whenever they want? Only technology is helping to address these risks and educate children to become safer digital citizens.”
The SafeToNet app involves installing a smart keyboard. It steers children away from potential harm by highlighting key words, sentences and themes and filtering harmful outgoing messages, preventing sexting, bullying, abuse and aggression. The app also points children who might be thinking about self-harm and suicide to professional helplines and has real-time audio help when dealing with low self-esteem, anxiety and loneliness.
Children with devices using the technology range from eight to 16 years old with 10 and 11-year-olds accounting for about 35 per cent of users.
The German government has paid for a £2.5million ad campaign urging parents and children to download the app.
Today Mr Pursey will show British ministers, phone companies and tech bosses how the product, available on iTunes and Google Play, could help safeguard five million children by 2021. It is the first app of its type in the world. The father of four said youngsters “often feel helpless”.
He added: “So with the support of children who helped us to design this product we are now able to give them mind-balancing and breathing exercises in-the-moment and the software detects issues that could harm the child”.
NO PARENT can afford to ignore the latest warnings of how young children can be manipulated and endangered online. An analysis of more than 65 million posts by 50,000 children shows an alarming increase in X-rated communications.
A culture now exists in which young people are encouraged to send sexually explicit messages and images. Children who are suffering from low self-esteem, anxiety and loneliness can find that their anguish is compounded when they go online.
Teachers and the Government have a vital role to play in ensuring that children are not exploited by those who wish them harm. But every parent must ensure that the smartphone in their child’s hand is not a passport to distress.